Nancy Run (also known as Nancys Run) is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the Lehigh River in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The creek is approximately long and flows through Bethlehem Township and Freemansburg. The stream's watershed has an area of approximately . It is classified as a Coldwater Fishery and a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and has been home to trout and a diverse

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

community.

Course

Nancy Run begins near the Green Pond Golf Course in Bethlehem Township. It flows southwest for several tenths of a mile before turning south-southwest for several tenths of a mile, where it crosses Easton Avenue. The creek then receives an unnamed tributary from the left and turns west for some distance before entering the

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

of Middletown. It then flows south for a while before turning south-southwest and entering

Freemansburg, Pennsylvania Freemansburg is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. The population of Freemansburg was 2,875 as of the 2020 census. The Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware River, flows through Freemansburg. Freemansburg is part of the Lehigh ...

, where it flows south for a few tenths of a mile before reaching its confluence with the Lehigh River.

Geography and geology

The elevation near the mouth of Nancy Run is above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. The elevation near the

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

of the stream is approximately above sea level. The

Lehigh Canal The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...

crosses Nancy Run. Near Nancy Run, "one of the best" beds of stromatolitic Limeport beds in eastern Pennsylvania is exposed.

Hydrology and watershed

The watershed of Nancy Run has an area of . The part of the watershed that lies above its unnamed tributary has an area of only . Nancy Run is entirely within the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

quadrangle of Nazareth. At its mouth, the peak annual discharge of Nancy Run has a 10 percent chance of reaching . It has a 2 percent chance of reaching and a 1 percent chance of reaching . The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching . Above its unnamed tributary, the peak annual discharge of Nancy Run has a 10 percent chance of reaching . It has a 2 percent chance of reaching and a 1 percent chance of reaching . The peak annual discharge has a 0.2 percent chance of reaching .

History

Nancy Run was entered into the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

on August 30, 1990 due to its presence on a 1975 county highway map published by the

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, currently Yassmin Gramian. Presently, Pe ...

. Its identifier in the Geographic Names Information System is 1211971. The stream is also known as Nancys Run. This variant name appears in a 1939 geological survey of Northampton County by Benjamin L. Miller ''et al.''. Nancy Run was named for an old woman named Nancy who historically lived in a log cabin on the creek and was well known as a

fortune teller Fortune telling is the practice of prediction, predicting information about a person's life.J. Gordon Melton, Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling ...

. In the early 1800s, there was a large

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

on the stream. The community of Freemansburg, which is located at the mouth of the stream, was incorporated in 1856. Two steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridges carrying Washington Street and Keystone Street were built over Nancy Run near Freemansburg in 1930. In 1938, a concrete culvert bridge carrying State Route 3007 was constructed over the stream. A steel stringer/multi-beam or girder bridge carrying Middletown Road was constructed over the creek in 1958, and in 1960, a prestressed box beam or girders bridge carrying State Route 3007 was built over the creek. Three concrete culvert bridges were built over Nancy Run in 2000; one carried Tenth Street in Nancy Run Estates and the other two carried Bridge Lane and Washington Street in the Emerald Hills Development. In 2014, the Northampton County Conservation District received a $5000 grant from the Coldwater Heritage Partnership to develop a Coldwater Conservation Plan for the watershed of Nancy Run.

Biology

Wild

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

naturally reproduce in Nancy Run from its headwaters downstream to its mouth. Upstream of a State Route 3007 bridge, the creek's watershed is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. Below this point, it is designated as a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. The stream is designated as Class A Wild Trout Waters for brown trout in its lower . In the 1990s, Nancy Run was found to support a benthic ecosystem of high

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, including one sensitive species. The stream also supported a number of fish species. However, a proposed highway extension was believed to potentially impact biodiversity by releasing organic and inorganic pollutants into the stream, although they would not have been directly impacted by the construction.

Macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

taxa found in Nancy Run in the 1970s include

Oligochaeta Oligochaeta () is a subclass of animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadrile earthworm ...

sowbug A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood. ...

s, scuds,

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order ...

caddisflies The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

, beetles, '' Diptera'' (flies/midges), blackflies, and

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class G ...

References